Balm
by Stargazer83
Summary: Balm for the soul... Gibbs is in pain, Tony helps. mm SLASH Gibbs


Title: Balm

Author: Barbara aka ltcatepike aka Stargazer83

Rating: PG13 bordering R for nudity, but no real action in this one, sorry.

Category: H/C

Pairing: Gibbs/DiNozzo

Summary: Some days are just hell.

Notes: Dedicated to Sonia Rydell. I hope you feel better soon hun. (And thank you for getting my Muse back from her vacation, for an emergency writing session at least.)

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS, or its Characters. Just letting them play in my own personal sandbox for a while. Hey, they asked for it, so don't sue me. Talk to your characters not to inspire other people's muses if you don't want fanfiction.

Another case, out in the middle of nowhere. Tony sighed. Why did people have to choose such remote locations for killing somebody? It didn't really make a difference in the end anyways. They always left something behind that would eventually lead back to them. He bagged the last item and then turned to Cait, "Are you done?"

"Yep. And after hours of digging through dirt and god knows what I'm ready to go home and take a shower."

Tony grinned in response. "Oh yeah."

"Tony... wipe that smirk of your face."

"Boss? We're done!"

Gibbs turned around to answer, but instead treated his partners to a show of an ungraceful fall down a small slope and a decidedly non-male yelp.

"Shit. Boss?"

"Gibbs?"

Cait and Tony ran to the edge.

"Are you okay?"

Gibbs was lieing in patch of green about two feet below them, the wind knocked out of him.

"Uh... yeah." He stared up into twin grins. "Not a word." He shot them both a dirty look as he struggled upwards and pulled himself to level ground again and straightened his shirt. At least they had the decency to hide their grins behind their hands.

Tony raised his hand to pick a few stray leaves from Gibbs' jacket, "You got something on...", but Gibbs just swatted his hand away. He forcefully strode over to the car. "You coming?"

Still smirking the other two got in the car.

On the way back, Cait and Tony made idle conversation about their plans for the evening, the weekend, anything to distract them from Gibbs' sour mood.

"Boss are you okay?" Tony asked a good twenty minutes into the ride.

"Yes."

"You're fidgeting."

"I'm fine."

Tony shot him a dubious and concerned look, but he knew better than to argue with him when he was in one of his moods.

Back at the office, there wasn't really much they could do. They had to wait for the lab results from Abby before they could proceed with the investigation. Besides, the Director had been on their collective asses for all the over time they had done lately. So since this wasn't really a high priority case they would just quickly fill out the paperwork and then call it a night. Cait was done first, which wasn't surprising - Gibbs still couldn't sit still and Tony kept watching him. She wished them both a good night and then sped out of the office before something else came up. She couldn't remember the last time she had left the office at a normal hour.

Gibbs finally caught Tony staring at him. "Don't you have work to do?"

Tony frowned but turned back to his screen. Several minutes later he heard Gibbs get up and saw him head for the head. After giving it some thought, he followed him. "Okay. Enough is enough. What the hell is..." he demanded as he pushed the door open. "Oh dam. What is that?"

Gibbs quickly pulled his shirt down again. "Nothing."

"Like hell... let me see." And before Gibbs could protest Tony had pulled the shirt up again and gasped. He let go of the shirt and took his arm. "Come on."

"What? Where?"

"Ducky."

"Let go of me. It's nothing."

"It doesn't look like 'nothing'. Now quit wining and move." If he wanted, Tony could be as stubborn as a mule. He had learned from the best after all. However, that didn't stop Gibbs from complaining about it; he, too, had learned from the master.

They were still bickering by the time they got down to the morgue. Ducky was just preparing the tools for the next autopsy when they walked into the room. "Children, please. What's the problem?"

Tony maneuvered a still bitching Gibbs onto one of the tables. "Just look at his back."

Ducky switched to concerned Doctor mode. "Shirt, please."

Gibbs shot him und DiNozzo a dirty look but complied.

In the fluorescent lights in autopsy it looked even worse. Tony winced when he saw the full extent. "Ouch."

"Oh my, that's quite a rash you have there." He prodded the inflamed skin gently with his glove covered fingers. "Is it more of an itch or a burn?"

"Burn."

"Did you come into contact with any chemicals or plants today?"

"He fell into some bushes." Tony helpfully supplied.

"I see. Why kind of bushes?"

"I don't know. I didn't really take the time to look. I fell, I got up, I drove back here. As I said, I'm fine."

Ducky ignored Gibbs reassurances - Jethro would insist he was fine even if he had just been shot - and looked to Tony.

Tony tired to call up the image of the woods again. "I think it was nettles."

"Hmm... It looks like a particular nasty allergic reaction. I have only seen this once before. I remember this one time in..."

"Ducky..." both men shut him up in unison.

Tony gestured to Gibbs back, silently asking 'what now?'.

Ducky went over to his desk and wrote something on a block.

"He this salve should help. Apply it tonight and, if necessary, again tomorrow morning. It should be gone within the next 12 hours."

"Thanks Ducky." Tony grabbed the slip of paper and jostled Gibbs out of autopsy again. "See you tomorrow."

"Good night!" Ducky called after them as the doors were closing. With a smile a turned and got the body out of the cooler, starting to talk to the deceased.

Back in the bullpen, Tony shut down his computer. "Come on, close up."

"I have a report to finish."

Tony crossed his arms over his chest. He clearly wasn't going to give in. "It can wait. Or we come in early tomorrow."

"But..."

"No buts. You're in pain. And don' tell me you're fine. We're leaving. Now."

Gibbs thought about it for a moment. He hated leaving his work unfinished. But this rash was really bugging him. And when Tony was like this and didn't get his wish he'd be in a sore mood for the rest of the night. Possibly the rest of the week. He swayed between staying and going home, and eventually compromised. "Fine. But we come back here an hour early tomorrow."

"Great. Let's go." He inwardly groaned at the prospect of getting up a whole hour earlier than usual, but with Gibbs you had to take what you got.

They stopped shortly at a pharmacy and were at Gibbs house about half an hour later.

"Come on, let's take a shower."

"I like the way you think, Tony."

"Business first, sex later." Tony said with a stern look.

Light was twinkling in Gibbs eyes. "Promise?"

Tony couldn't keep the grin from his face and pulled Gibbs into the bathroom. Once stripped and in the shower, with the water steaming up the small room, Tony thoroughly inspected Gibbs back und the cascading water. Almost every inch of his right side, from the shoulder blade downwards, was a flaming red and even blistering in some places, the rash reaching a bit to his side. Tony kissed a spot right above rash and pulled Jethro back against him, careful to avoid the inflamed skin. "Poor baby."

Jethro frowned at the endearment, but was distracted when Tony began to kiss his neck and jaw. Sighing he leaned into Tony a bit more and winced when the bruised skin came into contact with him. That reminded Tony that he still had purpose here and he released his lover from the embrace. He turned him around and started cleaning him and himself.

Jethro felt like he had died and gone to chocolate heaven when Tony gently massaged his scalp, washing his hair. Life really couldn't get any better than this. He rewarded Tony with a long lingering kiss as they remained in the shower until the water began to grow colder. Reluctantly pulled apart and turned the water of.

Tony told him to lie down on the bed and followed him out moments later, clad in boxer briefs. He kneeled on the bed beside him. As gently as he could be began to rub the balm into heated skin. Jethro winced at the touch at first, but gradually relaxed as the ointment began to work its magic. He sighed and groaned when Tony moved on to soothingly knead his shoulders, the other side of his back and the muscles in his neck. "Tony, you missed your calling."

Tony beamed a full fledged smile at him. "Anything to keep the Boss happy."

"You gonna give Morrow one, too?" Gibbs teased.

Tony almost shuddered at the mental image. "Nah. He doesn't have your temper. Sides he's director, you're boss."

"Mmm"

Some twenty minutes later, Jethro was fast asleep. Tony stroked his back one last time, pressed a soft kiss to the silver hair and then went downstairs to hunt for food. It was still early and he figured Jethro would wake up from his nap sooner or later. Disgusted he closed the cupboards again. Tony wouldn't win the houseman of the year award any time soon, but even he had more food in his kitchen.

His growling stomach was going to start a rebellion if it didn't get some food soon, so he just ordered take out. He quietly went back to the bedroom and reclined against the headboard on the free side of the bed. With his laptop on his legs he began to softly type away.

He smiled when Gibbs shifted a little closer in his sleep and flung an arm over his outstretched legs. When he was settled again he turned his attention back to his laptop. Several minutes later he gave up. Who wants to work at 7:30 in the evening? He put the notebook on the floor and shifted to his side, careful not to wake Jethro. He propped his head up on one hand and let his other lazily run through the silver strands. He was happy to just watch his lover sleep, all other thoughts gone from his mind.

He must have dozed off at some point because he was jostled awake by the door bell. He slipped out from under the arm, quietly pulled on a pair of jeans and went to answer the door.

When he came back up, he found Jethro awake.

"Was that the door?"

Tony held up the containers. "Food. You really need to go shopping."

"Yeah."

Tony carefully placed the containers on the bed and removed his jeans again. Then he flopped down on the bed. He held the chopsticks out to Jethro.

"You want to eat here?"

"Yeah?"

"Naked. In bed. Eating Chinese food."

"So? Put on a pair of boxers if that makes you more comfortable. But don't bother for my sake.," he said, shoving a fork full of food into his mouth.

Jethro shrugged and took the chop sticks. "What did you get?"

After dinner and desert, Gibbs and Tony were relaxing on the bed again, Gibbs half sprawled over Tony.

"How's your side?"

"Mmm?" Tony stroking his hair had almost lulled Jethro back to sleep again.

"Your back. Does it still hurt?"

"Better. Did you set the alarm?" Gibbs mumbled.

"Yeah, just go to sleep Jethro." Tony pressed a kissed to his head. "Good night."

"Night" came the drowsy reply.

THE END


End file.
